1 Corinthians 5:1-5

1 Corinthians 5:1-5

It is being heard that sexual immorality is actually in you all – and of such a kind of sexual immorality that is not in the Gentiles – that someone has a wife of his father!  And you all are having been arrogant!  And you all did not mourn instead in order that the one who performs these works should be removed out of your midst?  For I, on one hand while being absent to the body but on the other hand while being present in the Spirit, have already passed judgment as while being present on the one who does these things in this manner.  In the name of our Lord Jesus – after you all and my spirit are being gathered together with the power of the Lord Jesus to hand over this person to Satan into the destruction of the flesh in order that the spirit should be saved in the day of the Lord.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

There is no point beating around the bush.  Wherever human beings go, there will be sexual immorality.  We are sexual beings.  Sometimes we act out of passion instead of acting with our minds.  We cannot always control to whom we are attracted.  It’s not like the people inside the church are going to have a different humanity than the people outside the church.  We should have a different spirit, to be sure!  But we all have the same humanity, one that is corrupted by the flesh.  So it should not surprise us to hear that in one of the churches that Paul helped to establish there is sexual immorality occurring.  Neither should it surprise us to hear that Paul deals with it.

Do you think sexual immorality is an issue in today’s culture?  Do you think it is an issue about which the church should be proactive?  How?

Second Thought:

At the beginning of this passage, Paul once more digs into the Corinthians.  They have been of the opinion that they are so spiritual and completely on the same page with God.  Yet so far we have seen them actively dividing the church.  Now we hear that they are not confronting sexual sin where it should be confronted.  No wonder Paul is bewildered by them.  They are arrogant and haughty without even realizing their own short-comings.  Not that any of us are perfect, mind you.  But this really goes back to the last chapter about the life of Paul.  Paul isn’t seeking to be the top dog with the best life.  Paul is seeking truth and embracing the hardships from the world that come along the way.  None of us have any reason to be haughty.  We all have every reason to be humble and look to our own lives and our own communities to cast out the sin that is rooted within us.

Why is it easy to be haughty and arrogant at times about our own life?  How can our own internal arrogance cause us to miss what we really should be doing?

Third Thought:

Paul’s closing words in this chapter should really be measured strongly to understand what he is saying.  Paul is not telling the Corinthians to kick out the man and have nothing to do with him.  If that were the case, Paul would not tell them that his flesh would be destroyed but his spirit would be saved in the day of the Lord.  What Paul is telling them to do is to judge the fruit of the man’s life, not his motivation or his mission.  After all, how many of us can actually judge another person’s motivation?  But we can judge the fruit.  So what Paul is really saying here is that the man’s actions must indeed be handed over to Satan – and as we’ll see tomorrow the man may even need to be physically purged out of the community until repentance is evident.  But this must be done in a way that continues to demonstrate and offer salvation to him.  The goal is not to “keep the church pristine.”  The goal is to “save the man’s soul.”  That is an incredibly important distinction to make.  We have no right to bar people from our assembly because they have sinned.  We have every right to purge evil behavior from our midst while continuing to extend the invitation of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Why is this an incredibly fine and difficult line to walk?  How is it easy to get this one wrong?  What does it look like to purge someone’s behavior from your midst but still offer forgiveness and repentance?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8